A Pub Crawl to the Tropics

We left Rum Cay after spending 6 days there. We hooked with another cruising boat, Homeward Bound, and had a great time rotating between our boats for evening dinners of freshly caught seafood, and guitar playing. The seafood being much better than the guitar playing, but after enough beer and rum everything started to sound good. During our stay in Rum Cay a front came through with a strong westerly, which resulted in us ducking into the marina there for three days, as there is no protected anchorage for western quadrant wind. This was a welcome change and our first Marina since Nassau at the end of November. The batteries definitely appreciated the three days of charging. Rum Cay has a very small settlement, probably 50 people, with some scattered resort/villa/marina development. The people were extremely nice, but clearly under pressure as the only game in town is tourism and there was nothing happening on that front. Like a strong U.S. cold front, the economic chaos is moving south east and engulfing the Bahamas. One curious defensive habit has developed; prices for goods and services are not published and to get a quote one must beg, the preference is to provide the goods and services and then make up the price afterwards, at a much inflated value. This leaves a bad taste for everybody involved, and I think creates only a small short term gain.

We left Rum Cay, with Jake saying "I really enjoyed that place", to head for Clarence Town on Long Island. The cruising guides were mixed on Clarence Town, as an east coast anchorage it is very exposed to the large swells from the Atlantic ocean, essentially coming unchecked for Europe/Africa, however the town itself is to contain some fascinating history. Well after 12 hours we have found the anchorage comfortable, more so that Rum even, and can see that the town will hold a great deal of interesting exploring for the next week or so.

One very troubling event, on our sail down from Rum, I made a terrible error. The trip is about 35 miles, so a 5 hour run for us. The winds were on our port quarter at 20 knots and seas on the beam running 4-10 feet in swell and wind chop. A nice, fast and comfortable sail. Alas not one that you should tow your dinghy through. This is what I did and we lost it off the cleat at some point, even though I was trying to keep an eye on it. Now a dinghy is the most important piece of equipment in an anchorage after a good anchor. It is your car; grocery getter, beach and snorkeling trips, visiting other boats and shore side attractions. Without it one is stuck on the boat. We are fortunately still buddy boating with Free@Last so can now buddy dinghy. The replacement though shall be a challenge as we are far enough into the out-islands that it shall be either very expensive or impossible, likely both. Wish us luck.

The Pub Crawl; Hammish and I attempted a pub crawl on Rum Cay. There are three bars, however one was closed. We made it to all of them, the best being Kayne's which was proud of its "Sand Bar", which upon close inspection was a simple two room structure with a bar made out of wood and sand on the floor. Good fun though. The locals were watching "Trading Places" when we walked in. We finished the pub crawl with a few more on the boat. Lastly, on our trip from Rum to Clarence Town we crossed the Tropic of Cancer, so we are now in the tropics!

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